Evil spirits in my floppy drive?

X

Xeno Chauvin

Building a new machine, using a cannibalized floppy.
Everything works fine BUT the floppy....
here's the prob...
OUTSIDE the case but attached to power
and ribbon cable the drive functions correctly.
Put it IN the case and it gives messages
like ..."disk is not formatted etc...", or
"insert a disk in drive A" even with a disk
in the drive.
I do note that one has to stick one's finger
almost to the second knuckle before the disk seems
to seat. ( Kind of obscene actually.)
Any ideas???
McM
 
J

JAD

$12.00 and a new floppy...also I've seen floppies take out a MB so I wouldn't play too long with it...
 
L

Larc

| Building a new machine, using a cannibalized floppy.
| Everything works fine BUT the floppy....
| here's the prob...
| OUTSIDE the case but attached to power
| and ribbon cable the drive functions correctly.
| Put it IN the case and it gives messages
| like ..."disk is not formatted etc...", or
| "insert a disk in drive A" even with a disk
| in the drive.
| I do note that one has to stick one's finger
| almost to the second knuckle before the disk seems
| to seat. ( Kind of obscene actually.)

The truth is that XP simply doesn't like floppy drives and floppies! It is a
known problem. I've had the same experience with brand new floppy drives and
floppies, both of which would work flawlessly in a system with a different
version of Windows. As recently as last night, XP decided that a floppy I put
in hadn't been formatted. It later relented, however, and accessed the files on
it.

Microsoft claims the problem is caused by floppies being removed too early in
the formatting process. In my direct experience, however, it's something more
internal than that. If a floppy drive and floppy will work as they should in a
Win9x system but the same hardware often won't work in WinXP, it's not the fault
of the floppy or the drive or the operator.

Can you say BUG?

Larc



§§§ - Please raise temperature of mail to reply by e-mail - §§§
 
R

RedBack

| Building a new machine, using a cannibalized floppy.
| Everything works fine BUT the floppy....
| here's the prob...
| OUTSIDE the case but attached to power
| and ribbon cable the drive functions correctly.
| Put it IN the case and it gives messages
| like ..."disk is not formatted etc...", or
| "insert a disk in drive A" even with a disk
| in the drive.
| I do note that one has to stick one's finger
| almost to the second knuckle before the disk seems
| to seat. ( Kind of obscene actually.)

The truth is that XP simply doesn't like floppy drives and floppies! It is a
known problem. I've had the same experience with brand new floppy drives and
floppies, both of which would work flawlessly in a system with a different
version of Windows. As recently as last night, XP decided that a floppy I put
in hadn't been formatted. It later relented, however, and accessed the files on
it.

Microsoft claims the problem is caused by floppies being removed too early in
the formatting process. In my direct experience, however, it's something more
internal than that. If a floppy drive and floppy will work as they should in a
Win9x system but the same hardware often won't work in WinXP, it's not the fault
of the floppy or the drive or the operator.

Can you say BUG?

Larc



§§§ - Please raise temperature of mail to reply by e-mail - §§§

Me thinks you have been playing with yourself for too long.

RedBack
 
S

Spajky

If a floppy drive and floppy will work as they should in a
Win9x system but the same hardware often won't work in WinXP, it's not the fault
of the floppy or the drive or the operator.

Can you say BUG?

.... there is another: XP does not read FDs formated as 1,7Mb, but w9x
does...

-- Regards, SPAJKY
& visit - http://www.spajky.iscyber.com
Celly-III OC-ed,"Tualatin on BX-Slot1-MoBo!"
E-mail AntiSpam: remove ##
 
S

Shep©

Building a new machine, using a cannibalized floppy.
Everything works fine BUT the floppy....
here's the prob...
OUTSIDE the case but attached to power
and ribbon cable the drive functions correctly.
Put it IN the case and it gives messages
like ..."disk is not formatted etc...", or
"insert a disk in drive A" even with a disk
in the drive.
I do note that one has to stick one's finger
almost to the second knuckle before the disk seems
to seat. ( Kind of obscene actually.)
Any ideas???
McM

If the drive light is on all the time the floppy cable is the wrong
way round even if the locating lugs on the cable say different.I've
built several systems that cam with none standard floppy cables and
had to cut the lug off at the floppy end of the cable and spin it
round.If you have an old type floppy cable with 3 plugs use the 2 end
ones.
HTH :)




--
Free Windows/PC help,
It's a G not a J in jmx to reply :)
http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/trouble.html
Free songs download,
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/8/nomessiahsmusic.htm
 
M

mdp

Here's one you probably haven't heard. I had a fan inside the case that had
a thermal sensor attached to a 12" lead that was used to automatically
adjust the fan speed. That fan interfered with the floppy. Got the same
error message you got. The lead either acted like an antenna or
conductively coupled interference through the motherboard fan header.
Switching to another fan header helped somewhat but once I put a regular fan
in, problem vanished. To test my theory, I put the original fan back in,
sure enough problem came back.
 

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